Cranberry-Almond Granola

Granola!  

I have a good recipe.  We don't eat it for breakfast as much as we use it as a snack and sometimes as a present.  Remember that brief and shining moment back in the early 80's when granola was like this great health food until someone realized it had fat in it, then it was so NOT a great health food?  Whatever.  It's not a super food, but it's not bad for you.  I like to think of it as a very wholesome snack.  Better than having a bowl of cornflakes.  Better than packing a candy bar for a treat for the kids at school.  Not as good as eating a veggie omelette for breakfast.

Well, I'm a big fan of using coconut oil in it.  Wonderful fat!  Then honey, of course.  Just try it.  Don't skimp on either of these ingredients just to make it more healthy.  It's not gluten-free and it's not Paleo.  It's just food.  See it for what it is and enjoy a little treat.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or more)
• 1/2 cup raisins

First, melt the coconut oil and honey together in a small saucepan.  This makes it easier to mix everything together.

Second, measure all of the other ingredients EXCEPT for the dried fruit into a large bowl.  The oats, coconut, nuts and seeds.

Next, pour the honey, coconut oil over it and mix it up.

Press it into a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake this at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  After the first 15 minutes, give it a good stir, and return to oven.  When it's done, the oats will be very slightly golden.  Don't let them color too much.  (In the picture below, you can see I let them color a little too much.  I always mess up when I'm blogging a recipe or trying to actually write a recipe down.)

While the oats and seeds are toasting, measure your dried fruit into the same large bowl.  You can see that I sprinkled a few tablespoons of ground flax seeds in here with mine.  I also use more than 1/2 cup of cranberries often.  It makes it a little more special.

When done, you should mix the oats and seeds with the dried fruit IMMEDIATELY while it's still easy to stir.  Then keep it in the bowl and give it a stir every 5 minutes as it cools so it doesn't cool in one solid block.

Store your granola in an air-tight container.  It will keep for a week or so.  But you know, it's really super yummy in the first few days, then less yummy after that.  I like it as a snack, or with yogurt.  I send it as a treat in my kids' lunchboxes sometimes